Don't ask.

_

"Sucess is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm "- Winston Churchill

Or your mind.

Fold your own Tiny Tales of the Beedle Bard

What you need:

• One sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper (I used Astroparche in Natural, but regular printer paper works just fine.)


• Color Printer


• Paper cutter or scissors


• Something to make a crease (I used my handy dandy orange peeler, but the smooth edge of a butter knife will work.)

How to:

1) First, you need to print the artwork. I've posted high resolution images on my flickr account here. Download the large size for the cover and the pages. They should look like this.

They were created for 8.5" x 11" paper and need to be printed on the front and back of one sheet of paper. When you print, the large outer squares must line up on each side of the paper. Look through the paper at a bright light and make sure the square on the side with the pages fits just inside the square on the side with the cover. And print the top of each page is at the top of the page. Any size square will work, though too small will make folding a bit difficult. (Think the Mythbusters folding the huge sheet of paper with a pavement roller.)

2) After printing, watch this video, it's a little over 7 minutes. It will show you how to both cut and fold your book.

OK, I know that I went kinda fast, and that it could have been zoomed in quite a bit more, and that Kitty is a bit distracting, though cute, you must admit quite cute.

If you are completely lost, try this.

• Print out a few sheets of origami paper here. My favorite is the green Matsu-mon (pine trees symbolize constancy, very soothing.)

• Cut your paper into 8 inch squares.

• Now watch this How to Make an Origami Book video by Mark Robert's. It is much better than mine, goes much slower, and is kitty free. Lovely music too.

• Fold a blank book or two just to get the hang of it. Don't despair if you don't get it perfect the first time. I didn't.

(Just a note on the accordion fold. If you watch my video and Mark Robert's, you will notice I added a step after the diagonal creases, but before I opened up the sheet and folded the top edge over to started the accordion fold. That next step was actually a mistake that made the accordion fold much easier. It's not a mistake, it's an improvement!)

Now try to fold your Tiny Tales again. Bit easier? Yes! Fantastic! Make one for all your friends!

No. Don't give up. Leave me a question in the comments and I'll help.

I hope you enjoyed folding your Tiny Tales. It was so much fun to design. And now that you have the template, you can design your own books, simple as pie. Or pi. Your choice.

Hum, I wonder what we can come up with? Tiny Beginners guide to Transfiguration. Mini Monster Book Of Monsters. Wee Wanderings with Werewolves. Oh, the possibilities are endless!

K's Favorite Fold

K loves folding Origami Undershirts.

Folded Gift

A friend of mine had a birthday. I made her a tiny origami dragon,





and put it in a little origami box,





I think she liked it.

(This isn't the actual box. I was in a hurry and didn't get a picture of the first one.)

Do All Kittys Love Cameras?

Tiny Tales of the Beedle Bard

I finally finished my entry for the HPC Shrinking Solution Challenge.

An origami version of J.K. Rowling's "Tales of the Beedle Bard."

And everyone can have one! I've made pdf files of the design templates and a video to show how to cut and fold. I'll post them next week.

Hermione would laugh...

K finished her entry in the Shrinking Solution Challenge on Harry Potter Crafts.

Can you guess? It's Rita Skeeter's crocodile skin purse, complete with her acid green Quick Quotes Quill. Just under an inch. Made of Plasticine. So cute!

The perfect size, for a beetle.

Yummy Easter Treat

Happy Easter! Greek Orthodox Easter is this weekend, and I just got the Easter film developed, so I thought I would share our favorite Easter tradition. Easter Egg Bread.

K is old enough to help with every step now, which is so much fun. We make a rich egg bread in the bread machine. After a second rise we form the bread into balls in a pie tin and cover for a final rise. Pop them in the oven and bake till nicely browned. Then we mix up some powdered sugar moistened with orange juice, add food coloring and decorate.

Yum!

Tiny Origami Books!

Only a bit over 1.5 inches tall. Oh I love them!

I learned to fold them on Youtube and they are so easy! Having no large origami paper, I printed out a page of lovely paper from here and cut it to 8" square. It took a few tries to figure out how to make the pattern on the cover fall the right way, but the result is adorable.

Hum, what could I do with this?

Pollen, Pollen, everywhere

This picture does not do justice to the horror of spring in the south.

My head hurts so much.

Dear Scarlett,

You like her, she's yours. I took one last picture with her Mum and Dad. She's half Chinese Fireball, half Welsh Green, but she takes after her Dad.

I'd be glad to send her to you, as soon as I rescue her from Kitty. Bad Kitty!

I've made this dragon many times over the years. The pattern can be found on page 31 in Mythical Beings by Jan Ansill.

You can find some wonderful origami dragons here, with references on where to find the diagrams. There is a diagram for a very similar dragon here. Just scroll down to the Rearing Dragon. I just love the wings.

A few years ago, my daughters school was having an international day. The whole school spent the day studying Japan and I was asked to demonstrate Origami to kindergartners through 8Th grade. I made as many models as I could, easy to intermediate, and all sizes. I held up each one and let the students tell me what they thought each model was. They had a lot of fun trying to guess the abstract ones and loved the more detailed models. The biggest hit was the dragon. I made a little one from a sheet of origami paper and a big one from a sheet of wrapping paper. Everyone wanted to make the dragon. Unfortunately, we only had time to make fish. But they were good fish, goldfish actually.

I'll post some more models, when I get them away from the cat.

Hum, what to do?

The April Craft Challenge on Harry Potter Crafts has started:

"Oh no! You dropped one of your favorite things into your cauldron of Shrinking Solution!"

Miniatures! Yes! Oh, I just love it!

But, I can't decide what to enter.

This was my first idea: Tiny origami dragon, pictured with it's most obvious decendent, the wind up mechanical chicken.






She is quite wee.







I am now blind.

The problem: Libbie has already entered the sweetest little crocheted dragon. Off the cuteness scale. Tiny origami cannot compete.

Must think of something else. Hum...